‘The Dark Knight Rises’ With Leonardo DiCaprio as The Riddler? That’s How WB Wanted It

As you might imagine, it didn’t take long for Warner Bros. executives to start talking with Christopher Nolan about a follow up to ‘The Dark Knight’ – the film was a massive critical and commercial success. But would you believe they already whispering their plans for ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ to Nolan and his creative team at the ‘Dark Knight’ premiere? And they even had an idea for who they wanted to play the villain…

David S. Goyer, who co-wrote all three of Nolan’s Batman films, told Empire that at the premiere afterparty, excited Warner Bros. executives took him aside and said of the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ villain: “it’s gonna be The Riddler, and we want it to be Leonardo DiCaprio…”

It’s not surprising to think that Warner Bros. would want to pair up their most successful director with their most successful actor; it just makes sense. And it’s something they actually did do after ‘The Dark Knight’ except it wasn’t on ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ it was on ‘Inception’ (and few could argue that didn’t turn out very well for all parties involved).

The notion of The Riddler in the next ‘Dark Knight’ movie (and Leonard DiCaprio playing him) was probably not one Nolan entertained for very long. The director spoke to the LA Times back in 2011 and while he wouldn’t divulge many details on his plans for the sequel, he said flatly and confidently of his choice for the villain, “It won’t be the Riddler.”

What do you think? Would have liked to have seen what Leonardo DiCaprio could’ve done with The Riddler in Christopher Nolan’s universe? Or are you happy where we are now with Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in ‘The Dark Knight Rises?’